Isnin, 22 Ogos 2016

Today marks 560 days Anwar Ibrahim has spent time behind bars. This past August 10th also marked his 69th birthday; the second year in a row Anwar is spending his birthday in prison.

Celebrating Eid in Sungai Buloh

On the 5th of July on the eve of Eid day, Anwar's family and supporters gathered outside Sungai Buloh prison to "celebrate" Eid with Anwar.

Eid celebration comes after a month of fasting from dawn to dusk, a joyous occasion to celebrate a month of fasting, charity, obedience to god and reflections, spent usually with family and friends.

On that night gathering prayers was offered together to mark Eid celebration and opposition leaders and family members gave speeches to the supporters outside the gates of prison.

On the 7th of July in conjunction with the second day of Eid, Anwar's family members were allowed to visit him at Sungai Buloh. The permission to visit allowed Anwar's wife and children the opportunity to spend an hour together where they shared some customary Eid traditional delicacies. Although short lived, it proved to be precious for Anwar's family to spend some time together with Anwar for Eid.

Court Ruling On Eligibility To Vote

On the 15th of July, in a suit against the Election Commission (EC), the High Court ruled that Anwar has the right to vote even while in prison in line with the Constitution. Anwar claimed that he was denied his right to vote during the last Permatang Pauh by-election, which was vacated when he was sentenced to prison. However the High Court also dismissed the suit as the court ruled that the suit should be directed to the Prison Department for not providing the avenue to vote[1]

Anwar's lawyer N. Surenden MP remarked "I also want to add that this decision also shows that up to now, that right has been denied because there has been no attempt by the EC to ensure that those prisoners who are qualified are taken out and arrangements made to ensure they can cast their vote,". N. Surendan wanted a clear declaration by the High Court to ensure a similar incident does not repeat in the future.

Other Court Proceedings

In a defamation suit against the current Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, which was filed in originally in 2008, the High Court has allowed the case to be heard and will be calling Khairy Jamaluddin to testify on September 19. Anwar claimed Khairy uttered defamatory words during a speech in Lembah Pantai constituency, a Parliamentary seat held by Nurul Izzah Anwar[2].

On the 22nd of July, political blogger Papagomo failed in his final appeal to overturn a 2014 court verdict finding him guilty of defamation against Anwar. The High Court previously ordered Papagomo to pay 800,000 ringgit in damages[3].

The 1MDB Saga Continues

Anwar has been consistent in his opposition to endemic corruption within the ruling party and was among the first to have brought up the issue of corruption and shady dealings in the 1MDB scandal in 2010[4][5]. 6 years later the issue has now evolved into the biggest scandal in Malaysia's history[6] and the Department of Justice of United States of America has opened an investigation to recover more than USD1 billion in money laundered through the American financial system[7]

Free and fair election advocacy group BERSIH has called for a mammoth rally after the DOJ 1MDB suit to pressure for Prime Minister to step down as he is deeply embroiled in the saga[8]

Since the incarceration of Anwar, Malaysia continues to be embroiled with scandals after scandals. Former Opposition Leader and Democratic Action Party(DAP) Member of Parliament, Lim Kit Siang quipped in his speech that “If Anwar had become Prime Minister in 2013, Malaysia would have been spared the agony of the protracted 1MDB scandal, there would be no DOJ lawsuit derogatory of the nation's international reputation and Malaysia would be spared the latest label as a global kleptocracy.”[9]

Let us hope the ordeal of Anwar will end soon and his release will allow him to lead in rebuilding Malaysia. By removing Anwar from politics, the government has successfully eliminated a successful coalition that was capable of replacing the government during the next General Elections. We see growing calls from activists not to forget Anwar[10] while he languishes in prison and that his sacrifices must not go to waste in ensuring the struggle continues for a better Malaysia.

Till next month. Take care and thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Citizens of Thailand are not alone in the region when it comes to having to put up with dialogue-averse strongman leaders looking to consolidate authoritarian power.

The 15 million people of Cambodia have been watching the same movie starring Hun Sen, and featuring a muted soundtrack of dissent, for 30 years. Political repression is the order of the day ahead of local elections in 2017 and national elections the following year.

The brazen daylight slaying of activist Kem Ley last month in Phnom Penh could be a sign of things to come. Authorities arrested the shooter who claimed the crime arose from an unpaid debt. However, it is no surprise that few people believe that story.

Meanwhile, members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, already suffering from the self-imposed exile of leader Sam Rainsy, face an intensifying legal assault that has landed more than 20 critics of the government in jail. Then there is the murky “sex scandal” that has ensnared four members of the human-rights group Adhoc, a National Election Committee member and a UN staffer. It has prompted 59 NGOs to denounce the “farcical use of both the criminal justice system and state institutions as tools to intimidate, criminalise and punish the legitimate activities of human rights defenders and civil society”.

Malaysia is no less ferocious in dealing with its critics.

When the United Nations conducted its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights in Malaysia, the government accepted 60 recommendations but so far only 20% have been implemented, says an NGO coalition monitoring the UPR process. More worryingly, it said, in cases in cases relating to 57% of the recommendations there have been increasing rights violations, and a trend toward growing impunity.

Meanwhile, the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak continues to crack down on freedom of expression and other civil and political rights to tame criticism of the gross mismanagement of the state fund 1MDB, and to ensure his political survival for the next election due before August 2018.

An amended Sedition Act and a new Prevention of Terrorism Act have also empowered police to use unnecessary or excessive force when arresting opposition leaders and activists.

The Najib government is reacting to rising public discontent over issues ranging from allegations of corruption to the treatment of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim with a wave of repression, often relying on broad and vaguely worded criminal laws.

In Thailand, meanwhile, the military shows signs of continuing its thick-skinned and belligerent behaviour. It has rejected calls for the revocation of the arbitrary power allowed under Section 44 of the interim constitution, which remains in effect even though a new constitution was adopted in the Aug 7 referendum.

“The referendum is not a blank cheque for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to use power more arbitrarily,” said a civil society network combining former foes from red and yellow camps and including environmental groups and academics.

A junta statement even used the word “contempt” to express the government’s view of some international critics of the referendum process, who noted how severely the “Vote No” campaign had been curbed. Voting day itself may have proceeded smoothly, but overall the referendum was far from free and fair. Now, instead of the promised return to democratic civilian rule, the new constitution facilitates unaccountable military power and a deepening dictatorship.

It contains provisions that will make it extremely difficult for a single party to win a majority in the 500-member lower house. This will allow 250 NCPO-selected senators to play a critical role, including choosing a prime minister, who will no longer have to be an elected MP.

In addition, the NCPO will reserve Senate seats for its key members, including the defence permanent secretary, supreme commander, the army, navy and air force chiefs, and the police commissioner-general.

Both the new government and parliament will also be required to adhere to the “20-year reform plan” that the majority of the people had no role in drafting.

Yes, the charter was supported by 16.8 million voters, but that means some 33 million eligible voters either voted against both referendum questions, spoiled their ballots (more than 900,000) or did not turn out at all.

So now the curtain is rising on a new movie, but not the action fare we’re accustomed to, for the next five years — at least. Let’s call it For Reform With Love. What kind of reviews can we expect from the majority of Thais if the next junta-backed government can’t sustain the economic and political stability we crave?

Rabu, 17 Ogos 2016

BY GIDEON RACHMAN AUGUST 11 2016 (BusinessDayLIVE)

SOMETIMES one or two events can change the political mood all over the world. The release of Nelson Mandela from prison in February 1990 came just three months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Those two events inspired democrats and liberals across the globe.

Sadly, the international mood now is much less optimistic and much less friendly to democracy. The current mood has been shaped above all by the collapse of the Arab spring of 2011 into bloodshed and anarchy. Autocrats all over the world, above all in Russia and China, now point to the Middle East as an example of the dangers of premature democratisation.

The politicians who captured the spirit of the early 1990s were inspirational democrats such as Mandela, Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia and liberal reformers such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin in Russia. Today, the leaders who seem to embody the spirit of the age are autocrats with scant respect for democratic values — men such as Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the presidents of Russia and Turkey; as well as Donald Trump, a trash-talking demagogue who has somehow become the Republican nominee for president of the US.

The figures confirm the general impression that this is a bad period for democrats. Freedom House, a think tank that issues an annual report on the state of democracy, argues that political freedom has been in global retreat for the past decade. It reported earlier this year that in 2015, “the number of countries showing a decline in freedom for the year — 72 — was the largest since the 10-year slide began”.

The least free part of the world is the Middle East, which is a bitter disappointment given the hopes aroused by the uprisings against autocratic regimes that broke out across the Arab world five years ago. Egypt is suffering under a harsher autocracy than the Mubarak regime that was overthrown in 2011.

Even in Europe, some of the freedoms won in 1989 are imperilled. In Poland and Hungary there has been an erosion of press freedom and judicial independence. In Turkey, on the borders of the EU, hard-won freedoms are being lost as journalists and judges are arrested in the wake of a coup attempt.

In parts of Asia, things have also gone backwards. Thailand experienced a military coup in 2014 and this weekend voted in favour of a new constitution that could cement the military's control over politics. In Malaysia, liberals are in despair at the machinations of the scandal-plagued government, and Anwar Ibrahim, a prominent opposition leader, is once again in prison.

In the two most important autocratic powers — Russia and China — the governments are cracking down harder on liberals who dare to challenge the prevailing regimes. Last week, China issued long prison sentences for human rights lawyers in Tianjin and forced others into humiliating apologies. At about the same time in Russia, Yevgeny Urlashov, a prominent opposition politician, was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony on corruption charges that appear to have been trumped up.

The problems of democracy have extended even into the US, the “leader of the free world”. Even if Trump fails to win the presidency, he has already done immense harm to the prestige and dignity of US democracy.

But amid all this bleak news, it is important to remember that not all the trends are pointing in the wrong direction. In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest when Mandela was released in 1990, has been freed, and the country's first civilian-led government for more than half a century took power this year. Democracy seems well established in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. And Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, last year saw its first presidential election in which an incumbent lost and then ceded power peacefully.

Most important of all, the evidence remains that, for all the cultural and economic differences between countries, ordinary people all over the world eventually get fed up of corruption, censorship, injustice and political violence. Just this weekend, people were out on the streets of Ethiopia, demonstrating against a government that has delivered rapid economic growth, but also sharply restricted political freedoms. In recent years, pro-democracy demonstrators have taken to the streets of Hong Kong and Ukraine to demand political and civil liberties.

The uncertain nature of the moment we are living through is captured by current events in SA, which played such an inspiring role in the 1990s.

Last week, the ANC, the party of Mandela, saw its support slump in local elections as voters reacted against the corruption and inefficiency of the government of President Jacob Zuma. The pessimistic view is that Zuma and his cronies will do whatever it takes to hang on, and that their machinations will further damage South African democracy. The optimistic view is that the ANC's electoral troubles are an example of democracy's ability to renew politics as voters turn to new parties such as the opposition DA.

The very nervousness of leaders such as presidents Zuma, Putin and Erdogan is telling. Behind their swagger lurks a deep insecurity. Autocracy might be making advances across the world. But it always ultimately sparks resistance.

KUALA LUMPUR: A day after the controversial National Security Council (NSC) Act came into force, jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim filed an application in court on Tuesday (Aug 2) through his lawyer N Surendren to nullify the act that is said to be unconstitutional.

Anwar’s lawyer said he is also seeking an injunction to stop the implementation of the act that is said to give extensive powers to Prime Minister Najib Razak – who chairs the national security council – to designate any security areas and direct the police and armed forces to conduct arrest, search and seizure without warrants.

Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah who is also president of Parti Keadilan said the conference of rulers’ earlier request for a thorough review of the NSC Act must be respected.

“Anwar as the opposition leader is taking the lead, showing us the way forward. We must fight back, the conference of rulers specifically asked for a review but it wasn’t heeded, this is important,” she added when asked for the jailed opposition leader’s response.

Any action by NSC will also not be subjected to legal proceeding or actions.

While the government says the act will enable the various enforcement agencies to coordinate their responses in the event of a terror attack, civil rights groups and opposition leaders warn that the new act is easily open to abuse as too much powers are concentrated in hands of the prime minister.

Furthermore, the act is said to have usurped the powers vested in the traditional rulers as commander-in-chief of the armed forces under the federal constitution.

The NSC bill which was tabled in December 2015, was rushed through parliament and passed without obtaining royal ascent.

Under an amendment to the constitution, an act automatically becomes law after its gazetted for 30 days.